To cater to customers who are more discriminating about the coffee they drink, and willing to pay more for it, hotels are buying better quality beans, expanding coffee menus and installing modern coffee makers.

With more American exposed to premium coffee, it's becoming one of the most important amenities, says Kirk Thompson, a marketing executive at Hilton (HLT). Specialty coffee, made with premium or gourmet beans, is one of the fastest-growing food industries. From 2001 to 2006, sales of specialty coffee by coffee retailers rose 47%, to $12.3 billion, says the Specialty Coffee Association of America.

"For me, it is a must-have in-room amenity," says Jeff Mayhew, a human resources director in Memphis and a frequent business traveler. "It doesn't have to be a Starbucks or Wolfgang Puck-type brand, but it should have more taste and body than hot dishwater."

There are financial motives, as well. Coffee has some of highest profit margins among items sold in hotels. But by serving bland coffees and installing mediocre coffee makers in rooms, hotels have historically missed out on revenue as guests walked out of the hotel in the morning, scouring nearby cafes. A recent study by Starwood Hotels (HOT) showed that about half its coffee-drinking guests left its Four Points By Sheraton hotels to buy coffee.

More meeting planners are also insisting on better coffee, and hotels see a ripe business opportunity. Hotels can charge more than $100 per urn of gourmet coffee at banquets, compared with about $60 for regular drip coffee, says Jeanne Bischoff, publisher of trade magazine Hotel F&B. "Hotels are seeing what Starbucks is getting. Coffee is fundamental to hotels' food and beverage offering," she says.

The trend of switching to quality beans is unfolding across the spectrum of hotel types. And it'll cost customers and franchisees.

By the end of June, Holiday Inn will finish switching to arabica beans — a type of bean known to have rich flavor — at about 1,000 properties in the USA, says Sue Morgan of InterContinental (IHG), which owns Holiday Inn. The new beans will cost Holiday Inn franchisees 60% to 70% more.

Another notable change is in the rooms themselves, as more hotels remove the traditional drip brewers with a four-cup glass carafe and replace it with new brewers designed to take the guesswork out of coffee making. They brew one or two cups at a time, using tightly packed, individual coffee pods. They often use paper cups, giving customers the option of to-go coffee and housekeepers one less chore of cleaning cups. Using a pressurized brewing method, they extract more flavor from beans.

"Eliminating the glass (carafes) is the new wave," says Sherri Scheck-Merrill, a sales executive for Amenity Services, a food supplier to the hotel industry that is marketing the Wolfgang Puck brand. "There really is an art to brewing good coffee."

Last year, Hilton Hotels began installing Cuisinart's two-cup coffee makers that brew Lavazza coffee from Italy. Westin uses Starbucks' one-cup brewer. Westin customers have to pay extra if they want more than the two coffee pods served. Loews Hotels and Doubletree have also decided to go with new pressurized brewers. For guests in its loyalty program, Omni delivers coffee to the rooms for free.

"I've tried the Hilton brew, and it makes a great cup," says Coy Stout, a biotech company executive in Moss Beach, Calif. "I have long appreciated the Starbucks in the room at Westin. However, the best morning coffee is Omni. A fresh-brewed pot is left outside your door with a discreet knock."

In the lobby

Hotel chains also have started to recognize the lobby's potential as a market to sell more coffee. A full-service cafe with pastries and espresso-based drinks is a standard for Cambria Suites, a new chain launched in April by Choice Hotels International. Hyatt Place, a new limited-service chain, also has a barista bar in the lobby. Marriott has 40 Starbucks cafes at its hotels.

Omni is installing Morsels — its own cafe that doubles as a sundries store — at more of its hotels.

"Before, you had to go the lobby restaurant and ask the hostess (for coffee), and they looked at you like you had three eyes," says Stephen Rosenstock, a brand executive at Omni. "Everyone now wants the ability to take coffee with them."

In September, Le Méridien hotel in San Francisco will kick off its "Creative Hour" in the evening, designed to draw guests to the lobby to drink coffee by Italian supplier Illycaffè. Guests will be encouraged to participate in coffee-related activities, including cooking lessons for recipes that use coffee and for making special coffee drinks.

Not all are embracing the coffee revolution. Mike Monroe, a consultant in Orlando, says he won't be using in-room coffee brewers until they can make espresso.

Chuck DiMeglio, a consultant in McLean, Va., is not a coffee drinker. "If a guest wants to pay $5 for a cup of designer coffee, let them do it on their own," he says. "Don't stick me with the extra cost."

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